For my Mapping project I was initially intrigued by the idea of process. Throughout my freshman year at STAMPS I have been working on creating a systematic artistic process to revert to whenever I encounter a new problem. When given prompts or problems to solve in high school art courses I would have much less freedom in deciding how they were untangled. Similarly, first semester had many requirements that tagged along with each prompt. The problem was clear, the materials were already chosen and the ideation process was laid out for us. However in second semester, this soon changed. Starting in January, my peers and I had a lot more freedom in how they went about solving the problems we were given. Scale, material, medium and process were much more loosely monitored, allowing for more creative freedom. With a greater breadth of freedom, the projects that I produced became more meaningful to me because it was more of my thoughts, effort and creative ideas that went into the work.
           When thinking through the artistic process that I have developed over the past year and especially this past semester, I broke it down into six âlayersâ. I investigated and researched through my previous notes, sketches and ideations from previous Methods Of Inquiry projects and came up with these six process steps: word dump, rough sketches, second ideation, construction, editing/critique and the final product. I created these layers through wire, notebook paper, sketchbook paper, newspaper and aluminum foil. For âword dumpâ I directly selected the âword dumpingâ that I had done for each of the M.O.I. projects weâve had this year. I cut up and rolled the paper around wire to symbolize the constant cycle that the word dump has in my process of creation. However, I chose to separate the paper to symbolize the fact that this early on in the process no idea has been solidified, they are just all small thoughts, nothing fully idealized or thought through. The next interior layer, ârough sketchesâ is created from many various sketches that I have made this past semester to help assist me to visualize what my project will become. In this step I try to take the literary dump that I have done and turn it into rough visuals. The third layer, âsecond ideationâ continues on the base of the rough sketches but with a more constrained picture, measurements are involved and beginning thoughts about how it will be displayed are brought up. Next âconstruction,â in this step I experiment with how best to portray the message to the audience. I used paint in various colors and newspaper, to show the range in materials that I have used this semester. The following step, âediting and critiqueâ are where all my prior steps come together. I work to gather what I have previously learned while taking in critique from others to step back and strip away what is unnecessary and possibly taking away from the overall piece. I worked to create a smaller more refined, flattened version of the previous step to symbolize how the project is coming together. There are less loose ends and unknowns at this time in the piece. The final layer is a silver disk, something polished and full to represent the finished product.
